Lifehacker

Every year in autumn, our planet passes through a ribbon of space-debris left behind by Halley’s Comet, and Earth’s atmosphere colliding with this trail of ice and dust provides an impressive annual light show called the Orionids meteor shower.

Notifications have gotten out of control. What started as a necessary means to keep tabs on important updates from apps and services has spiraled into a tangled mess of spam and unnecessary alerts, by default. We can’t do anything on our smartphones without being interrupted by notification after notification, with…Read more...

Trying to make a sinister monster eyeball cake for Halloween might sound like a Nailed It! disaster waiting to happen, but it’s not as hard as you think to make a spooky season-appropriate decorative treat to terrify your friends and family. You don’t need any special equipment or a particular set of cake carving…Read more...

Getting motivated to clean in anticipation for the fall holiday season is hard enough. At the same time, you also have to decorate and find a way to entertain your kids. One adorable TikTok trick manages to accomplish all three by turning your robot vacuum into a “Broomba.” This idea one part Halloween…Read more...

If you ever fantasized of leaving your job on your 67th birthday and hopping on an international cruise, well, the pandemic likely shattered that vision. With all the ways the pandemic changed how people work, many have latched onto the idea of more flexible, phased retirement plans (or even coming out of retirement…Read more...

After the FDA changed the definition of “healthy” (for food labeling purposes), it turned out that many popular breakfast cereals don’t meet the criteria. CNBC points out that Raisin Bran, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Corn Flakes have too much added sugar to qualify. If you were surprised, buckle in, because the idea of…Read more...

Infidelity is a cut to the heart. If you’ve been cheated on, you probably feel a myriad of emotions from resentment and anger to hurt and betrayal. Not surprisingly, you might even feel like you want to hurt your partner back for the pain they’ve inflicted, including participating in revenge cheating.

They say fortune favors the bold, but I think it favors the anxious (like me), particularly when it comes to event planning. And what is Thanksgiving but an event? The “very detail oriented” among us tend to plan things “too far” in advance, but that extra bit of preparation usually pays off in the end.

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Contrary to popular belief, National Dessert Day is not a storied federal holiday, and was in fact only recently created by a PR firm? But who’s quibbling over its bonafides when they have the chance to get some sweet deals on some sweet treats? This year’s National Dessert Day is tomorrow, Oct. 14. Here are some of…Read more...

Wordle is tiny; Redactle is big. Where Wordle asks you to solve a single five-letter word, Redactle presents you with an entire blacked-out wikipedia page, and not a stub, either. You guess a word at a time, and you have unlimited guesses. You even get a bunch of freebies to start with, words like “was” and “and” and…Read more...

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If the Catholic church is right, you are going to Hell. Probably.

Discord is not just for gamers anymore—it’s becoming a safe haven for communities that are being pushed out of other platforms like Slack and even Instagram. Discord’s free plan gives you enough power to run a large community, with moderation, rules, and more. But one thing Discord sucks at is the UI: Discord’s use…Read more...

One of the hardest parts about parenting is the uncertainty about the future. As much as you want to (and try to) do the right thing, it can be hard to predict what the end results of your efforts will be, once your child has eventually grown up and left home. Parenting during the teenage years can feel especially…Read more...

Many young, single people assume they don’t need life insurance. Unfortunately, this misconception is difficult to reconcile before it’s too late. After all, life insurance is one of those investments that you can’t exactly buy after you need it, and if you wait too long, it’s going to cost a lot more to get it.Read more...

While once unthinkable, tech companies are starting to play nice with one another. No longer are ecosystems so walled off that it becomes impossible to have an Android and a Mac, or an iPhone and a PC. In fact, Microsoft now allows you to sync your iCloud photos from your iPhone to Windows 11—you just need to jump to…Read more...

I primarily associate graham crackers with cheesecake and after-school snacks. Traditionally, I have not associated them with meatballs, let alone ham balls, an Iowan delicacy I learned about just a few days ago.Read more...

If you have a grass lawn on your property, you already know how much they suck. Grass is fragile, fickle, and expensive to maintain. Lawns suck your time and energy and are pretty much ecological disasters in many ways, ranging from water use to the reduction of natural habitats—plus they’re a pain in the ass to…Read more...

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COVID vaccine boosters were updated this fall: Pfizer for ages 12 and up, Moderna for ages 18 and up. Now, younger kids can join in. The FDA announced today that both companies’ boosters have been authorized for ages 5 and up. The CDC also issued an updated recommendation stating that children in this age group should…Read more...

The world is so full of dangers we can’t outrun—tornados, bears, bullets—that you might be asking, “Why did I buy these expensive running shoes anyway?” But don’t lose hope: Running away isn’t the answer in most dangerous situations, but there are a few things we can successfully flee on foot.

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You know by now that the White House announced a sweeping plan to forgive the student loan debt of millions of Americans—today, a U.S. district judge could decide to temporarily block Biden’s student loan forgiveness program from taking effect. In the face of these legal challenges, the administration prepares to…Read more...

Now that you know the best time to carve your pumpkins so they won’t rot before Halloween, it’s time to move on to the next essential chapter in jack-o-lantern maintenance: How to keep them from becoming squirrel carnage and ruining the carefully curated Pinterest vibe on your front porch.

As we head into a winter with soaring inflation and rising energy costs, an electric blanket can be a solid investment. They’ll keep you warm and they’re cheap to use—it costs about 15 to 30 cents to keep an electric blanket on for 10 hours. If you live in a drafty old home or your utility bills are becoming a source…Read more...

Garage doors are generally built to last, and most of them will keep functioning for up to 30 years. But once they start to wear out, an old or broken garage door can cause a range of issues, including security problems. Once you’ve decided to replace yours, here’s what you can expect so that your invoice doesn’t give…Read more...

Recently I received two security alerts from Microsoft warning me someone had attempted to log into my account. The emails offered me links to review the activity and reset my password, as well as a link to learn about ways to make my account more secure. I’ll be honest, the emails seemed...off to me, and I almost…Read more...

Microwaves are convenient. Too convenient, perhaps. So convenient that some of us are suspicious of them. When these common appliances were new on the kitchen scene, there were objections to the supposedly unnatural way they heat food—remember that urban legend about the girl who boiled her brain while trying to dry…Read more...

If you’ve been in a job for a while without moving to the next level—despite your boss’s many promises of an eventual promotion—you may start to feel as though you are actually being strung along. Maybe your boss simply wants to drag more work out of you with the promise of a (non-existent) reward; or maybe they aren’t…Read more...

It only took Apple a decade or so, but you can finally pin tabs in Safari on your iPhone and iPad. The feature was worth the wait: When you close all tabs, it won’t clear the pinned tabs. By effect, you can turn your frequently visited websites into static web apps, without adding them to the home screen.

Halloween is synonymous with sugar, and overloading cookies with chocolate, gummy worms, and sugar eyeballs is par for the course. But after your fifth dozen-batch of cookies laden with orange buttercream, it’s reasonable to want to give the butter and sprinkles a rest. Well hold onto your broomsticks, because we’ve…Read more...

Freezing is, as we all know, a great way to cut down on food waste. Storing food in the freezer pauses the clock, so to speak, for at least a few months, which is better than the few days or weeks we usually get from storing fresh foods in the fridge. But water is tricky. It’s the only (non-metallic) liquid that gets…Read more...

Football season is well underway, and it just so happens to coincide with Halloween, so some adorably morbid, shareable snacks are in order. Save your ordinary pigs in blankets for later and make some Halloween mummy piglets instead—complete with slime.

If you want to take a cross-country road trip filled with scary places for Halloween, read on. The ten locations here are spread across our whole, terrifying country from California to New Jersey and are haunted by forces like institutional cruelty, ecological disaster, and, of course, ghosts. Also: clowns.

When you’re overcoming the cold or flu, you can get trapped in a hellish cycle of needing sleep to recover, but losing sleep due to lingering symptoms. Even after your cough has disappeared during the day, it often creeps back at night—making you (and everyone else in your household) miserable. Here’s what to know…Read more...

Winter is coming. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to take a great fall hike and take in the crisp air and beautiful autumn foliage—especially when you can get a free bonus out of it.

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Super Saturday, Amazon Prime Day: The retail industry keeps making up unofficial holiday deal days to give us more excuses to spend our money ever earlier and more often. Now it seems we might have a new trend started by Amazon’s “Prime Early Access Sale,” in which deals start well before…Read more...

When I was a scrappy youth growing up in New Jersey, it always surprised me when friends would chuckle at my descriptions of having egg-centric meals for dinner. Apparently, “eggs were for breakfast.” But to me, they were one of the best dinner options, and there was no way anyone would to taunt me out of eating my…Read more...

Lately, my TikTok algorithm has served me a series of videos featuring awesome games from indie developers I otherwise wouldn’t have heard of. These titles aren’t even finished yet: Some have release dates, others have demos, while still others live only in the developer’s databases. Wherever these devs are in the…Read more...

Even if you hate basic fall activities prefer to do something more unique in the autumn, you’ll probably find yourself at a pumpkin patch at some point this month. It is jack-o-lantern season, after all. And while pumpkin-hunting may be basic, your carvings don’t need to be. There are cool, unexpected patterns to be…Read more...

In an antisemitic tweet that I will not link here, a certain narcissistic celebrity garnered a lot of attention for grossly misusing the DEFCON system. If you’ve ever mistakenly referred to it as “Death Con” instead of DEFCON, you’re not alone. All most people know is that the term corresponds to a sense of…Read more...

Some of us are just curious. If you had a medical test done, and the results are sitting in your chart, don’t you want to know what they say right now? But especially if it’s bad news, it may be better to wait until you can speak with your provider to find out what the test results really mean.

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I am something of a pickle collector. I have a dedicated pickle fridge with a wide assortment of brined beauties contained within its walls. I cherish the salty, sour vegetables, but I’m never sad when I finish eating them—because that means I can start cooking with the brine.Read more...

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As English-speaking fans of Japanese horror have known for decades, the genre exports itself particularly well. Scary movies are often built on shocking visuals, which means when done well, horror loses little power when it travels. And, just as often, horrifying tales unique to the residents of a particular country …Read more...

Most “health” insurance plans in the U.S. don’t cover two pretty vital things: your eyesight and your teeth. While health insurance in general is a dumpster fire in this country, nothing compares to dental insurance for sheer uselessness. As anyone who has ever needed extensive dental work knows, even with dental…Read more...

As the winter season approaches, many people are about to start gathering indoors more frequently, which means closer quarters for virus-containing droplets to travel through the air. According to the CDC, EPA, and OSHA, good ventilation—including a portable air purifier—is one thing you can add to your COVID…Read more...

Why do I still carry a wallet? My iPhone does just about anything a traditional wallet can do. Most (if not all) of my purchases are via Apple Pay or QR code, my phone holds all of my pictures, and most of my receipts also go to my email. Basically the only I keep my wallet around is to carry my ID. Once my state…Read more...